OfflineI have a coworker who put in an offer on a house about 30 days ago. We are located in the Portland Oregon area. He told his realtor what he wanted to do and his realtor accepted and signed off on it. The realtor then submitted the offer to the home owner who excepted the offer within 30 min. They did what they needed to do and now 30 days later they still have not closed and he does not have any information on what, when or why it is being held up. He is afraid that they are holding it up again to avoid the 4.8% interest rate that he was told he would get.
Here is the question my coworker has. I guess this is kind of in two parts, hope it makes since.
Is it normal to take up to, or more than 30 days right now to close? This is the Portland Oregon area, or are they possibly stalling it so they don’t have to give him the lower rate?
If stalling is the case, what type of action can he take to resolve this issue?
He is trying to get this at 4.8% which is what he was told they would do. This is actually the 2nd house he has put an offer on and was accepted. He is working with a different bank this time.
On the first house the bank messed around and came back to him and said we can not do this for the lower interest rate we told you due to it has been 30 days or so and now we are going to have to ask you for more. I don’t know the exact numbers on this myself but it was almost 2% higher if I remember correctly which would bring the payments to an amount he could not afford. He had also put down $2000.00 earnest money. On this fist transaction he said forget it I'm not taking the higher rate, you told me it would be lower! By turning down the higher interest rate he also said he lost his earnest money even though when he made the offer he was quoted the lower interest rate.
Is this normal or should he have got back the earnest money?
Any input would be great.
I hope you all are having as much fun as I am and good luck!
Have a great day!
Mark
Most contracts are written to close in 30 to 35 days from being accepted. It is unclear what the hold up is. It sounds like it is the lender who is the problem but they should be able to tell you why the closing is being postponed. There are a lot of things that need to be done for a closing. The lender has to get verification of employment, a complete appraisal, any other inspections and title work done before they will fund the loan. There are some mortgage brokers/ lenders who would delay to squeeze the borrower but they are a small minority.
He should have gotten the earnest money back if he had a financing contingency in the contract that states the offer is contingent on getting a loan for a certain amount at a specific rate. If the contingency wasn't specific to interest rate, then he won't get the earnest money back.
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